I went back to my transcription notes from Gomes' press conference, and you may be on to something there Idlager, *however*, if not 'targeted' for murder, then what do you propose they were targeted *for*? If robbery, then surely they would have robbed them/taken stuff, since it is obvious they had plenty of time to rifle through the valuables and take what they wanted, yet it seems nothing was taken; if home invasion, then surely things would have been messed up inside, etc.
I think it may just be semantics - when police say 'targeted', to me, their meaning is that nobody else needs to worry about these criminals doing something similar or otherwise, to anyone else in the random public; that whatever happened to whichever victims that were 'targeted', was specific to those victims and their assailant; a relationship of *some* kind pre-existed between the two and that is what the crime was about; so in other words, 'nothing to see here, go home, let us do our jobs'.
It *is* interesting how Gomes uses the word and her responses when asked questions using the word. I would have posted my transcript, but there were many times when I was unable to figure out what reporters were saying (they were often all talking at once, and/or some speak in meek little voices), so I decided not to post it. But these are the Q&A parts with reference to 'target', skipping the rest (R=Reporter; SG=Susan Gomes) (link is below as well):
R: Why did it take you six weeks to do this Detective Sergeant Gomes, given that, uh, you know, people in the community were concerned about their own safety, are you saying that people have no reason to be worried, that these people were specifically targeted and no one else is at any risk?
SG: I'm saying that the Shermans were targeted in this event.
R: You said they were targeted, ... does your ?? suggest that it's a possibility it was a random attack or, do you believe they were <kept apart??? targeted???>?
SG: I believe that they were targeted.
R: <???? blah blah.????> I understand you can't ?? the evidence. Is that what the evidence suggests to you? ????? or, how did you come to that conclusion?
SG: I believe in the six weeks of review of the evidence that we've retained, that they were targeted.
R: Do you think they were targeted by any business associates ...???
SG: It's possible. <shrugs>